Trustees Jones and Cromp to run for reelection in March

Skaneateles  Village board elections are only two months away, and current Trustees Sue Jones and John Cromp both have decided to run to maintain their seats.

“I am officially a candidate,” Jones said when asked before the start of the Jan. 12 village board meeting. She also had a petition out on the village hall counter to be signed by anyone who wanted to support her efforts to get on the ballot.

Any candidate for village trustee must receive 500 signatures on a petition to be placed on the ballot.

Jones, who will run on the Village Party line, has been a trustee since 2004.

“Yes, I will run. I’ll have my petitions ready this weekend,” Cromp said when asked after the board meeting.

Cromp, who will run on the Village Homeowners’ Party line, was appointed to the village board in March 2010 by incoming Mayor Marty Hubbard to fill Hubbard’s seat, which he vacated to become mayor.

Cromp has run for trustee twice before, and lost both times.

Jones and Cromp will be running for the first trustee positions to exceed two years, the result of the recently-enacted Local Law No. 4, which extended the terms of village trustees and mayor to four years and changed elections to be held biennially in odd-numbered years.

Jones and Cromp will run for seats with three-year terms in order to begin the biennial election calendar properly, and the 2013 village elections – which will include the other two trustee seats and the mayor’s office – will begin the four-year terms.

At its Jan. 12 meeting, the village board approved the appointment of four elections inspectors and one alternate for the March elections.

The first day to begin filing petitions for residents interested in running for village trustee is Tuesday, Feb. 7. The last day to file petitions is Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Village Clerk Patty Couch can create petitions for interested persons. She can be reached at the village offices at info@villageofskaneateles.com or 685-3007.

Election Day is Tuesday, March 20, with voting from noon to 9 p.m. in the new fire station.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Skaneateles Press. He can be reached at editor@skaneatelespress.com.